How to get my beadwork flatt???

[onelummi]

hey i am a southern tradish dancer and i am making a crown. but in my beadwork there are all of these bumps and lumps i think my beads are not all the same size or something(7colors)... but is there anything i can do other than totally re-doing it!?!? if i have to i can start over. but any tips will be great .
thanks

[Blackbear]

Is it at all possible for you to post a pic of it? Might be able to tell better what you are talking about if I could see it..but what I think it is , is that you are crowding beads...and one solution is to go back with your thread and tack those beads down like you were doing a two needle method..but it won't work for all if they are crowded.

[onelummi]

my scanner is broken


well it is getting hard b/c with the patterning i have to use a certan amount of beads but the same amount of beads with different colors is different lengths. so that is why it is bubbling (I hope that makes sense)..but tacking it down would be way better!!! i am so glad you said that i have a tendency if i dont like something to take it all out and start over... i guess that is why i am never finished!



:) thank you so much!

[Cheshire Cat]

Sounds like problems with the backing material and too many beads in one area. Are you doing two needle, one needle or lane stitch on the crown? If your backing material is not stiff enough it can create puckering and shrinkage as you put more beads on which leads to "bumped" up beads.


Cheshire Cat

[Blackbear]

I think also it might depend on the quality of beads you are using...if you are buying your beads from walmart to do anything that is for counted beads like loomwork or lane stitch where all the rows are counted...then QUIT!! Don't' buy your beads from walmart for this..they are made in Tawain, they are totally uneven, usually too large and each color seems to be made a different size...they are just poor quality. Keep your bead either all japanese made or all Czech made for better quality and more uniform size.

[onelummi]

WALMART BEADS NO WAY!!!!all of my beads are about size 10 czech that i orderd from crazy crow. and i am using double thick layers of canvas. using 8 beads per strand in lazzy stich
but i fixed it all last night ...untill about 3:30

i figured out that i had miss measured a couple of rows and it just threw it off but it is looking perfect now...

the problem is now i keep making it bigger so it is going to be around 5 inches tall when it is finished.

now all it needs i think is more rhyne stones:Naughty

[Blackbear]

LOL!!! OK!!

[onelummi]

ok i have yet another question~
my fingers are so herting and i still have a pair of mocc's to do and i was wondering is there any tips to beading on leather? b/c i have a belt (4.5inch) , the rest of my crown, leggings, pluss a new shawl to do all before November. anything to save my hands from these stupid sharp needles!!!!! would be great!

thanks yet again
onelummi;)

[lsijohn]

Check out the quilters section in the fabric store.......or at Walmart. There are little handy finger-saving tools there. In the quilter section there are these small sticky ovals that stick to your fingers.......I use these little sticky ovals where my fingers are getting the most wear. I think they are called finger-savers......something like that............:)

[Mato Winyan]

I use the little ovals too. Only thing I had to start cutting them in half because they started catching them on the thread. But hey, they last twice as long now! ;) :p

[Majii]

When I work with leather, I just usually use a scrap piece of leather to push the needle through.
I've tried thimbles, but they got in the way and got too time consuming to keep putting the thimble on everytime i needed to push a needle through.
I'm the kind of person that needs to feel the work. So, I use leather for needle pushing.

I've discovered a technique when I've had beads bunch up. It works good if you're using felt. I flip the work upside down and use an hot iron to flatten it, then I immediately glue the work to a stiff surface and the beadwork remains completely flat. I don't know if this will work on other materials, I've only tried it on felt.

[mcuch]

Sounds like you have a lot of work. It sounds like you are having a hard time with quality. Leather is not a pain to sew on unless you buy the bad stuff. Believe me don't every buy bad quality if you want a piece to turn out nice. I think Crazy Crow has a nice leather called German Tanned that sews well, any other commercial leather will wear your fingers down to nubs and look badddd. Though if you already have bad leather and don't have other resources, do your bead work on a seperate piece, like one layer of canvas with paper bag backing. Make sure it is not too thick. You can then sew this beaded peice on to the leather moc. and your contact with the leather and needles is minimal. Another thing that helps is use the smallest kind of needle. If you have the worst time at it, quit and buy some braintanned, its worth the money and you will have a beautiful pair of mocs. As for a belt, it sounds like loom work would treat you kindly, if not just lazy stitch on your standard backing material. It's usualy a good idea that when you start lazy stitch to use a ruler for the first line, this way you get a straight line as well as a area to work in so you are less likely to add more than 8 beads at a time. As for flattening work and iron works well, though a piece with too many beads might just have too many problems, but nothing that a sharp awl cann't solve ( break any beads that aren't nesaccary). After you get your work to look flat, take a piece of cereal box that is bigger than your piece, glue it to the back side of your piece and iron it untill it is dry. Once you see that the glue is cooked in take your piece and shape it to your head, or if the piece is to be flat lay it on a hard surface and put some books or something heavy on top of it, until the glue sets. YOu will find that this will make a world of difference in your work. I sounds kind of funny but it is a very traditional way, except that the grandmothers used flour water instead of glue. As for your shawl I find that laying it over a chair and wrapping the finge on a loom helps hurry things along.

I hope that this helps and if you need help call again. As for your fingers the only thing that can help you is to get tuff.

[Tsiniti]

I'm not a beader, I just came in to read, and learn, but I am a quilter, and I use a leather finger saver, kinda like a thimble! You might try that? It works great when I'm sewing leather too!

[Blackbear]

Yeah I use that too Tsiniti..but I made my own so that they fit me well...I have very small fingers and everything I buy in a store is too long or too large.

[dancnbrd]

I just checked out this thread as I'm getting ready to start all new dance clothes for me. Thanks for the finger saving tips!!